Customer Reviews

We Saw Lincoln Shot: One Hundred Eyewitness Accounts

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Very comprehensive book- the only one out there like it. It is interesting to read what the people in the theatre that terrible night actually saw and heard. I learned some things I didn't know by reading this book, and would definately reccommend it to anyone interested in the Lincoln Assasanation.

Good's book captures the immediacy of a dramatic and tragic moment in U.S. history: when John Wilkes Booth assassinated President Abraham Lincoln in Ford's Theater in April 1865. Reading the accounts of eyewitnesses, we can all feel as if we were there--the lights are down, the actors are saying their lines, a gunshot pierces the air, a man leaps from the presidential balcony onto the stage, he yells something and waves a knife and disappears. Pandemonium ensues.

This book would make a good companion volume to James Swanson's Manhunt. Read them in chronological order (this book first) and be transported back 140 years.

Richard Salva--author of Soul Journey from Lincoln to Lindbergh [UNABRIDGED]

This is a wonderful, very informative book. It's the only written collection of eye witness accounts ever published on the Lincoln assasination. Every Lincoln buff needs to add this one to his or her library.

Imagine if 100 of those who still had fresh, "I-was-in-Dallas-yesterday" memories of President Kennedy's murder had been compiled at the time, in 1963? What you'd get are 100 accounts of the murder, each with its own slight twists, based on that person's vantage point at the moment of tragedy. (I'll not delve into JFK conspiracies here. That's not the point of this review.)

Yet that is exactly what you get with, "We Saw Lincoln Shot: One Hundred Eyewitness Accounts". From the doctors who administered aid to our greatest president only moments after his mortal wound,to the many common folk who'd come to Ford's Theater that night to view President Lincoln and his announced, but no-show guest, General U.S. Grant, more than they'd come to see the play, "Our American Cousin".

On history's most tragic Good Friday night since that First Good Friday, 741 people bought a ticket to Ford's Theater. The management, police, and government sought written statements from as many of them as could be found, along with accounts from Ford's employees, actors, and so forth. What you'll find the most compelling of those in this book!

This is a neat book. What a great idea to compile eyewitness accounts of the murder of Lincoln. It's very interesting to see how the accounts are alike and how they differ. The book provides a brief explanation before each eyewitness account. You'll like this book!

Absolutely the best book on the actual moment of the assination.
All of these accounts have been published in other publications but this is the first book to have a compiliation of the most reliable accounts under one cover. If you are interested in Lincoln, his murder, doing a book report about the assination, this book is the bible of what happened at Fords Theater on April 14th 1865.

There have been many books written about the assination and they all quote these witness accounts. That's why I wonder why it took 130 years for this book to be published.

This book was very interesting. Of course, I am a lover of all things Abe! However, this book is truly one of a kind. Not just a record of Abraham's death, but of the people who were sitting next to him at Ford's, and the people who had a good look at John Wilkes-Booth as he jumped from the balcony, etc. Very detailed reports that almost made you feel as though you were there.

Highly recommended, especially to those who are interested in Abraham Lincoln and true crime.

This is an outstanding book for anyone who really wants to get a glimpse of the Lincoln assassination as though you were there, or at least hearing about it via contemporaneous accounts. It helps sort out what probably happened from a lot of the embellishments that came later, but now seem to be accepted as facts in many places.

My biggest concern in buying this book was that so many accounts of essentially the same things would become repetitive. As it turns out, not the case at all--not only are the accounts about many different aspects of the assassination and many different perspectives among those, the editor/author adds enough commentary to place each in context.

A must-read for anyone interested in the Lincoln assassination.

The small Ford's theater is packed that Good Friday April night of 1865 and quivers with excitement and anticipation. Everybody knows that Lincoln and possibly General Grant will be attending "Our American Cousin." When the Lincolns arrive half an hour after the curtain goes up, there is a standing ovation. Mr. Lincoln bows, with a smile. General Grant does not attend the play, but the Lincolns' friends Major Rathbone and Clara Harris accompany them. It is noticed that Mary Todd Lincoln has her hand affectionately on the President's knee while they are seated in their box. You are there. You too try and get a glimpse of the President in his rocking chair but he's partially hidden behind an American flag. You hear the shot right after Harry Hawk on stage says "you sockdologizing old man-trap." Is that gun shot sound part of the play? Then you smell the gun smoke. And you hear Mary Lincoln shrieking from the presidential box. The theater erupts into pandemonium.

This book is the horse's mouth in regards to Lincoln's assassination. The first person, eye witness accounts of men and women and even boys are taken from letters, affidavits, depositions, magazine articles and more and are riveting- and in the earlier written reports quite remarkably consistent. As the years went by some accounts become embellished. But the early descriptions right after the events in 1865 are remarkably consistent except for two details: did Booth break his leg when he hit the stage and did he yell "Sic semper tyrannis" and or something else?

Many descriptions of John Wilkes Booth vaulting over the rail of Lincoln's box, catching his spur in a flag draped there and landing awkwardly on one knee or even on all fours appear in the book. But the early reports state that Booth immediately recovered his equilibrium and ran swiftly across the stage and out the back where his horse was being held. Observers mention his diabolic expression and that he carried a long bladed knife which glinted in the stage lights. Booth himself, in his diary tries for martyrdom as he states he broke his leg in the 10 foot jump to the stage but did the deed for the sake of the south not for self-aggrandizement. Booth actually was looking for self-glory and his theatrical performance was quite calculated. Most witnesses agree that he did say "sic semper tyrannis." He shoots an unarmed man in the back and considers himself a hero and expects the nation to idolize him. He most certainly broke his leg after he left the theater, probably from a fall from his horse.

What you feel when you read this book is the great love for Lincoln that washes like a tide across the little Ford's theater and binds the witnessing audience of the awful event together in a tapestry of a horrible shared experience. Several surgeons attended the stricken president who was laid flat on his back on the floor of the box. Dr.Charles Leale discovered the entrance wound of the bullet under Lincoln's left ear. The bullet had plowed through Lincoln's brain coming to rest behind his right eye, which quickly turned black. Dr. Leale knew the injury was mortal and insisted Lincoln should be taken someplace nearby the theater, and so the President was carried across the street to the Petersen house. There is considerable disagreement among the men who carried the President as to whether he was on a stretcher or a board or was simply carried out bodily. But in general the reports are quite consistent.

One Joseph H. Hazelton was five years old and in the audience that April 14. He wrote many years later: "The third act was on and as Mr. Lincoln entered the audience rose en masse and cheered... I was standing directly opposite the President's box and looking up at him and noting with childish delight to see how he was enjoying the play."

Mr. Hazleton also penned this beautiful tribute: "And when the spirit of that mighty man soared its way to that bourne from which no traveler returns, it served to weld an unbreakable link of steel between North and South, making it one grand and beautiful nation..."

"We Saw Lincoln Shot" is fascinating, the outpourings of theater goers who were there and who witnessed an event of incomparable importance, and incomparable tragedy.

This book was both an easy and enjoyable read. I have read other general books on the Lincoln assassination, but there is something uniquely special about reading the accounts of those who were sitting in Ford's Theater when it actually happened. Of course this is not all the eyewitness accounts, and Mr. Good made sure to explain why he used the ones chosen. He also did a nice job of adding context to many of the letters and entries in the book and using accounts that covered more than just in-theater experiences (such as those who wrote about the resulting emotional state of D.C.).

I was especially captivated by the ways in which the many accounts differed, such as whether Booth broke his leg when he landed on stage, what (and when) he shouted anything, and who helped carry Lincoln across the street to the Petersen house. Good organized the book in the ideal manner to watch nuances and inaccuracies creep in as time between account and event grew.

I am not sure I would read this book first if I was going to start reading about the Lincoln assassination (for no other reason than its focus on just the events inside Ford's Theater - my personal bias would be to start with a book that covers more broadly the before, during, and, especially, after), but the barrier to entry is quite low, and I did not feel outside information was necessary to fully enjoy this book.